A portion of the MLD staff spent yesterday at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.  We splurged for the Flash Pass to get as many rides in as possible, but this gave us little time to recover between trips to the upper atmosphere.  It was a full day of thrill rides and junk food that left us all reeling.  Here’s a recap of the day.

Superman: Ultimate Flight – Good ride to start the day with.  Not sure I like the position you’re in to simulate flight, but it sets the ride apart from other coasters.
Flash Pass – An absolute necessity after waiting in the Superman line.  Could have been a lot worse, but being able to book yourself into a ride for a given time made for a much more productive (even if it was only producing nausea) day.
Nitro – This ride is a classic and I think the favorite of most of the group.  High speeds, big drops and great turns.  Couldn’t really ask for much more.
The Dark Knight Coaster – Speaking of turns, if you like them this is the ride for you.  All it does is make a series of sharp lefts and rights.  Probably the worst ride of the day for nearly everyone at the park as we overheard someone say “Let’s go on The Dark Knight, so I can show you how much it sucks.”
El Toro (which means “the bull”) – A wooden coaster that totally knocked us for a loop.  Similar to Nitro, but far more savage.
Johnny Rocket’s – Yeah, this may have been a mistake as it impacted all rides for the rest of the day…
Kingda Ka: Easily the highlight of the day, although I may be alone in that assessment.  Like being shot out of a cannon up a 400+ foot hill and dropping back down.  Even though we didn’t/couldn’t, I put in my vote for a return trip.
Bizarro – So, this was the old Medusa ride painted purple and given a few new accents.  Too long and too much head trauma for my tastes.  I’ll avoid this one in the future.
Batman the Ride – Always fun, and it’s neat to see all the Micheal Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney era Bat-decorations.  Almost bailed on it after the bad experience on Bizarro, but I’m glad I held out (opinions expressed represent those of the brain, and not other organs).

Other highlights included: nylon capes that I really wanted to convince Angie we should buy, a tiger habitat with cats that made Sammy‘s paws seem proportional to his body, a dolphin show which could have used some better writing, and Kevin’s offer to challenge the Flash to a race (but he was too consumed flirting with a clearly underage fan and adjusting his pants (The Flash that is, not Kevin)).

Maybe this doesn’t qualify as popular culture, then again, maybe it does. After all, everybody has to eat, and everybody’s got an opinion as to what’s delicious. Here’s my opinion on the roasted Capsicum annuum.

I hated peppers when I was younger. Didn’t like the taste, the texture, the color. All bad. Then, sometime during my high school, psuedo-competitive eating phase,  someone called into question my intestinal fortitude when I wouldn’t eat hot peppers. I rectified that situation and fell in love. Thereafter, every time I had a chance, I’d order the hot banana peppers or jalapeno slices on sandwiches when restaurants had them on the menu as an option. Still later, my dad (whose own judgment can be spotty) offered me some roasted red peppers with some sharp provolone. It wasn’t a hot pepper, it was the red variety of Bell pepper, which I’d always hated. Dad explained these were different, because they were roasted and packed in olive oil, and would I just try it? Skeptical, but unwilling to back down from the challenge, I took a pepper and some provolone and…

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I believe MLD can claim singlehanded responsibility for this fact. That’s right I’m patting us on our collective back because we rule and no one else had anything to do with it.

Victory_is_Near

Beware Doomstroke and Hawkbeast! Seriously? Sorry for the bad photos, but I couldn’t contain my joy over the sheer stupidity of this comic.

The one nice moment in the issue, however, featured Batman acknowledging the similarities in the personalities of Hal Jordan and Dick Grayson despite his very different relationships with the two characters.

After a controversial run on Batman that ended with Bruce Wayne sort of but not really dying in another title, Grant Morrison launched the new Batman and Robin title from DC this week with frequent collaborator Frank Quitely. Spoilers ahead…

So there’s a new Batman and Robin showing up in Gotham for the first time in this story. The original Robin who has been running around the DC Universe for the last 25 years as Nightwing, Dick Grayson, has taken over as Batman and is joined by Bruce Wayne’s evil brat son, Damian, as Robin. In contrast to the classic team, the new Batman has a sense of humor and the new Robin is a violent, psychotic, ten-year old, trained by Ninja Assasins who thinks he should be Batman. The Batmobile flies. The villain is called Mr. Toad and looks exactly like you’d expect.

It sounds stupid. Well, it is stupid. But in the capable hands of Morrison and Quitely, it works. And by the way, Morrison’s last run on Batman works better than you think it did too. Go back and read it one sitting. Seriously. Try it. It’s not nearly as incoherent as it seemed while reading it on a monthly basis.

Anyway, where was I?

Quitely’s art is a style all his own. Undeniably ugly… And yet I can’t get enough of it. His characters ooze personality.

Morrison in one issue has written the most interesting Dick Grayson we’ve seen in years. And while he’s treading on dangerous territory by making Robin such a brat… (Fans voted for the last brat Robin to be beaten with a crowbar and blown up…) I believe he has a plan for Damian. Whether that plan will be satisfying for readers or not, I guess we’ll see.

The master villain we’re introduced to at the end of the issue looks to me like someone from a horror movie and his actions seem to confirm we’re about to see the equivalent of Batman vs. Leatherface or the villain from some torture porn flick or something. The scene was sufficently creepy and sold on the strength of Quitely’s characterization.

In conclusion, it’s interesting that Dick Grayson is running around as Batman now (for the second time… See Batman: Prodigal), when just a few years ago we saw his death scene in Infinite Crisis. A scene that DC thankfully wimped out on following through with, as we saw Dick alive a few pages later. But make no mistake, Dan Didio intended to kill Dick Grayson off once, this story could just as easily be his swan song.